Sep 2009 - Present

Radio Chase Production Teaching Assistant

As the teaching assistant overseeing story chases for a weekly current affairs radio program, I advised the chase producer and assisted reporters in developing story ideas, offering advice on tracking down contacts, and keeping the team working to meet tight deadlines, before helping to pull off the live show.

Oct 2010 - Present

Web Editor, Reporter

One of the joys of working for a start-up like iPolitics is the opportunity to take on new responsibilities, expand your role, and see that effort recognized. Working remotely from home, I was initially tasked with little more than posting wire copy. In the months that followed I have expanded my responsibilities in several directions (copy editing, post appearance and functioning...) and have recently been asked to take on an even more senior role.

Apr 2009 - Jun 2009

Reporting Intern

I chased general assignment stories for both print and online video, and took photographs. My editor quickly recognized my skills in video production and soon assigned me to produce video for a variety of stories, including the 2009 Stephen Leacock Award for Canadian humour writing.

Oct 2008 - Jan 2009

Reporting Intern

I chased assigned stories and sought out story ideas. I was responsible for police checks and quickly writing web hits on breaking stories. I also took photographs, both to accompany my stories and for standalones.

A bit about me...

My growing body of work has been published in the Ottawa Citizen, Victoria Times Colonist, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, and a half-dozen other Postmedia newspapers. I've written for small, local outlets like the Orillia Packet and Times and Annex Echo, had pieces broadcasted nationally on CBC Radio One, and have been published on iPolitics.ca.

I am a true multi-platform journalist, at home game massaging a radio doc as bringing personalities to life in print, or tweaking html code to get a web post looking its best.

In style, my work spans the spectrum from hard news brief to colourful profile, from comment to short form radio documentary. My subjects have included archaeologists, a former drug dealer, immigrant workers, city councillors and junior football coaches, to name just a few.

I'm an enthusiastic and artful story teller, and a thorough and curious reporter.

Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to learn more.

Skills in brief...

Flexibility

I've excelled across different news mediums, varied story areas, and distant cities.

Creativity

Turning a good story idea into a great one that engages the audience is always my goal and my skill.

Technical Aptitude

I have formal training in audio, video and pagination programs and a knack for quickly picking up new software.

Eye for Detail

Their/they're, effect/affect: my copy would make English teachers proud.

Portfolio - Print Clippings

Creating this feature on people in Victoria who work nights meant pulling a few graveyard shifts, myself.
See the bottom of this bar for more print clippings.
See below for more print clippings.

Time and tide

This small feature on a coastal archeological dig was a great chance to use colour and language to bring a painstaking process, but fascinating story to life.

MV Sun Sea

I was on the shore of Esquimalt Harbour when the MV Sun Sea was tugged in just after dawn. I filed from the blackberry before the migrant ship hit the dock. The next day's cover story was a team effort.

Portfolio - Radio Pieces

I came across flyers for Ottawa's first Thai Fest and soon discovered the unlikely story behind its inception.
Ottawa Morning, July 3, 2009

Coming Back

Coming Back is a radio documentary I produced in the weeks after interning with CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition.
The Sunday Edition, June 14, 2009.
Click on the images in my portfolio items to watch, read or listen to them

Portfolio - Multimedia

Apart from playing cover model to this multimedia feature, I also produced a Soundslide about small breweries making it during the recession. Visit the link and click on "Micro brew, mega bucks" at the side.

Roadside Assistance

I was the lead producer on this Capital News Online multimedia feature about car theft in Canada and the legislation that could curtail it.
(Thumbnail image courtesy of Cyril Canton)